Friday, October 15, 2010

On the absurdity of some mainstream economic research

... Come On People! Really? You are going to use 'equilibrium' and 'optimization' analysis on the behavioral/cultural act of cutting someone genitals off? Welcome to the absurdity of which many (not all) in mainstream economics peddle. Start off with 20 different assumptions about rationality, equilibriums, stable preferences, etc., and this is the kind of quackery the 'science' gives you.

Let me tell you, only an economist so brainwashed in the mathematics of 'rational' economics can say something like:

In this paper, we model FGC [female genital cutting] as a pre-marital investment. We show how the rat-race nature of the marriage market may result in inefficiently high equilibrium levels of FGC [female genital cutting].

Garth Brazelton

About Me

I work for the Indiana Economic Development Corporation as the Director of Operations and Business Systems, and I teach macroeconomics at Indiana University (Indianapolis). Previously, I was an Economist at the US DOT in Cambridge, MA. This blog does not represent the opinions of any of these organizations.